(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drowsy driver warning system and, more particularly, to a driver's eye detection method for judging whether the driver is drowsy or not.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Recently, much research and development has been conducted on advanced safety vehicle (ASV) for preventing road accidents and minimizing damage when collisions occur. The basic concept of the ASV is a safety-guarantee and an accident-preventive vehicle. Too achieve these objectives, many safety technologies are adapted in ASV. These technologies includes the drowsy driving warning system, nighttime pedestrian monitoring and warning system fire alarm system, and so on.
Among them, the drowsy driving warning system helps prevent accidents caused by drowsy drivers at the wheel by means of sounding an alarm shaking the seat, increasing the audio volume, or emitting a strong stimulating gas. Thus, prior to activating the alarm, there is need to monitor the driver's condition and judge whether he is drowsy or not.
Such a drowsiness detecting system uses image-processing technology to analyze images of the driver's face, particularly his eyes, taken with a CCD camera Thus, the extraction of the eyes of a driver is very important and if the system fails to detect the driver's eyes, it is impossible to judge whether the driver is drowsy or not.